Questions tagged [locate]

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Using mlocate to search on multiple systems in parallel

I often need to search files on different systems, without knowing on which system the file I'm looking for is located. Is it possible to search with mlocate on multiple systems in parallel? By ...
Chris9834's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
474 views

Running updatedb as a nomal user (using the plocate package)

I want a normal user to be able to update the database used by the locate command in Linux. With the previous version of locate (provided by the package mlocate), I achieved this by adding the ...
scaramouche's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Enable updatedb for mlocate in CentOS or RHEL

Even if the mlocate package is installed with dnf install mlocate the updatedb command is not scheduled to run. That means locate <filename> return empty results. How do you enable updatedb to ...
sastorsl's user avatar
  • 171
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Unable to locate package neofetch on apt install neofetch

I'm trying to install neofetch on a Linux server running Debian 8, I'm already on root, I type apt install neofetch but it returns E: Unable to locate package neofetch. I tried apt-get install ...
Hamza's user avatar
  • 1
1 vote
0 answers
290 views

locate.updatedb not indexing ~/Library

I know there's a file deep in ~/Library called index.js. I can find it with the find command find ~/Library -name "index*"(it actually finds a lot of similarly named files). However when I ...
The Lost Kitten's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
5k views

locate command does not work on mac terminal

I'm working on Mac (Catalina, 10.15.7) and want to use the locate <...>-command. After typing locate ... it suggested me the following, which I did. WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate....
NilsK's user avatar
  • 145
0 votes
1 answer
687 views

WSL - updatedb (mlocate) is not indexing Windows directories

I cannot search for Windows files using locate. Updatedb is not indexing directories from /mnt/c
Maciej Bledkowski's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
6k views

What makes 'locate' so fast compared with 'find'?

In my mind, both locate and find finds a file, but why does locate run so fast? According to its documentation, locate: DESCRIPTION locate reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and ...
Tiina's user avatar
  • 3,157
10 votes
1 answer
78k views

Where is Microsoft Teams application located on my Windows 10 Computer?

From the 'tray icon' I chose to disable "start Teams on startup" but now I can't find the application. It's not in Programs Files > Microsoft [neither in Program Files (x86)]. It's not in ...
Kostas Gogas's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
42 views

How to cancel the reference by locate?

My os info: uname -a Linux mydebian 4.19.0-14-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.171-2 (2021-01-30) x86_64 GNU/Linux There is no /usr/share/vim in the os,it is my first time(never install before) to install ...
showkey's user avatar
  • 149
3 votes
2 answers
371 views

mdfind command on Debian Buster 10 but can't build index

I have installed the mdfind package mdfinder.app_0.9.4-1+b2_amd64.deb on Debian 10 Buster. The command mdfind comes classically from MacOS X but when I did an apt-cache search mdfind, I got this ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

How to find all files,with substring, e.g. xyz (caseinsensitive) in filename within particular type (*.txt) using linux command line?

I have some bunch of files, which has "xyz" in the filename, This "xyz" can be case insensitive, e.g. "XYz" or "xYz". Wish to display all possible combination of the files in from current working node
Adsignals's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
59 views

Find system sounds in a software

I am using the Wondershare Filmora 9 video editor software on my Windows 10 laptop and I would like to locate and replace the default "Notify me when Video Conversion is Done" sound as I can barely ...
George's user avatar
  • 1
2 votes
1 answer
327 views

the `locate` command (Linux) doesn't show any files in homedirectory

System: Debian Sid Problem: The locate command only returns files that exist outside my (the user's) home directory. This behaviour is new and was probably introduced through some package upgrade. ...
xxm's user avatar
  • 137
0 votes
0 answers
89 views

Locate database must always be updated before search

I've noticed lately that when I run locate [something] it will always fail, even if I know the files are there (and I've seen them through a call to locate previously). I have to run updatedb before ...
Brydon Gibson's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
320 views

What is the difference between find and locate?

It seems to me locate is much faster than find and also more thorough at finding files. What is the difference?
nipponese's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
101 views

Tracking launchtl locate database creation

I'm running the locate command to look for a file on MacOS and I get a warning that locate.database needs to be created with a certain command. I noticed it takes quite a while to build the database ...
DogEatDog's user avatar
  • 113
0 votes
1 answer
400 views

how do I sort the output of 'locate' by file modification time

When I use the locate command, I often wish that the output was sorted in reverse chronological order, just like with ls -rtc. What is the easiest way to achieve this?
Metamorphic's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
5k views

Difference between locate and which in Linux

What is the difference between locate and which in Linux? Why when I use locate mentor does it list all the mentor but when I used which mentor it says "no mentor in..." - what does this mean?
Naddy's user avatar
  • 281
1 vote
1 answer
789 views

How to use locate to search for parent folder of a file?

For example I have this file in this folder folder_x/folder_y/file1.txt I want to do something like this: locate -xxxx file1.txt and get this /folder_x/folder_y/
phong's user avatar
  • 279
0 votes
1 answer
66 views

How can I locate a local html file that has been loaded into the browsers element inspector?

Since there don't seem to be any video players with a seamless loop, I've been opening my webms through Firefox since the webm player is capable of seamless looping. Problem is every time I open a ...
Musixauce3000's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
168 views

mlocate re-index only one folder

Let's say I changed the contents of one or a small number of folders (added / deleted / renamed files) and want to add them to the mlocate index. What I would like is to: Re-index only the ...
icyrock.com's user avatar
  • 5,262
3 votes
1 answer
8k views

locate doesn't find all the files it should

I type in locate gmp.h at the prompt and get the following: /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24/include/linux/igmp.h /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24/include/uapi/linux/igmp.h /usr/src/linux-headers-3....
neubert's user avatar
  • 7,092
0 votes
1 answer
36 views

Locate displaying old files?

My locate command seems to be digging up files which don't exist (old files which I have renamed). sudo locate bus-node.conf /etc/init/start-bus-node.conf sudo mv /etc/init/start-bus-node.conf /etc/...
Karl Morrison's user avatar
19 votes
5 answers
10k views

How to a open a file in vim using pipe

I get to use the locate command extremely often. So if I run the following command. locate updatedb | head -1 Then it gives me the O/p /usr/updatedb.conf I wonder if there is any such command ...
Krishna's user avatar
  • 422
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Which tool is most flexible for searching my whole system, locate or mdfind?

Follow-on to Spotlight and the locate command don't search *all* folders: The steps mentioned by Gordon Davisson were performed; .bashrc was entered in the Spotlight search field, and System and ...
Billy McCloskey's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
5k views

Finding files on mounted disk with locate

I have a small SSD disk with my linux system, and a large IDE disk with most of my work, that is mounted at system start. For some reason I can't seem to find files on the IDE disk using locate. I don'...
Backlin's user avatar
  • 201
-1 votes
2 answers
536 views

Windows alternative to locate on ubuntu [duplicate]

The locate command on ubuntu is so great that I miss it a lot on Windows 7. Do you know of an alternative? Ok I found this but it's not great: Is there something like the GNU locate command in ...
unludo's user avatar
  • 99
11 votes
1 answer
8k views

`locate` wildcard strange behavior - why?

locate "*.png" returns all files ending with .png, as expected. locate "test.*" doesn't return anything, but there are files named test in my system. locate "*test" returns all files ending with ...
Vittorio Romeo's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
97 views

Ubuntu 12.04 trashed file disappeared

I just trashed a very large file (250GB) on a Ubuntu 12.04, but I actually wanted to delete it. I emptied the trash, but it seems that the file is still on the disk (the free space didn't change). If ...
Alessandro Cappello's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
56k views

How to display file details (size, date, etc.) from Linux “locate” command?

The (slow) Linux “find” command has an option, “-ls”, to display size, date, etc. like the “ls -l” command. But the “locate” command doesn’t seem to have that. So how can I get the equivalent ...
Dave Burton's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
86 views

Problems with locate

Wondering if someone can enlighten me as I believe that perhaps my expectations are wrong. When I use locate I almost never get what I am expecting. For example... I removed a software package and ran ...
aserwin's user avatar
  • 309
0 votes
2 answers
858 views

is it possible to create a locate database for a network volume in Mac OS X?

I need to be able to quickly search through millions of files on a network volume and instead of searching directly I’d like to look up the info in a database. Instead of “rolling my own” it seems ...
tom stratton's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
8k views

How to run updatedb, excluding some paths, but not removing previous indexed content for those paths?

I have a strange question, and i am not sure this is something doable at all, thats why i am asking it to the SuperUser :) So, imagine that you have your filesystem with some mount points for ...
Pa_'s user avatar
  • 183
0 votes
2 answers
71 views

Strange 'locate' behavior and icon changing

I'd like to change the icon of a program called Refit with a custom one. This program has various tools and when I try to change those icons all is ok but then I run the following command: $ locate ...
Luigi Tiburzi's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
7k views

FreeBSD 9: How to locate an exact filename?

Trying to use locate command to find an exact match for the given pattern. However it results showing all matching files.. For example: I want to find a binary named: node But it gives me all ...
Alex G's user avatar
  • 958
13 votes
3 answers
30k views

How to use updatedb command as an ordinary user?

The locate command is very useful tool on Linux, but it seems only root can run updatedb command which is very unconvinent to use it. So how to make ordinary user to have the priviledge to run ...
hugemeow's user avatar
  • 2,299
6 votes
2 answers
9k views

linux locate command sort by date

The linux locate command is great at finding files quicky. My question: how can we use the locate command so that the results are returned in date/time order?
mcaleaa's user avatar
  • 181
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

Mac OS X locate command returning nothing

I don't get an error about the db not existing or being populated. I get nothing. I know for a fact that the things I'm searching for exist on my box. I even tried locate bin or locate Users. I get ...
boo-urns's user avatar
  • 561
15 votes
11 answers
9k views

How to use locate to search for folders only

On a UNIX system, "locate" searches the database for files with chosen name or files within the folder with the chosen name. How can I use locate to output only folders, not files?
shrx's user avatar
  • 454
20 votes
2 answers
22k views

A file shows in "locate" command but don't exist. Why?

I'm having a strange issue. I am currently fixing a flash install on Backtrack 5 (Based on Ubuntu). I really need to get flash to work, so I looked up on Google. On some board, one guy said that on ...
PatrickCUDO's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
611 views

Linux Locate Command false info

I am running Arch Linux and have used the "locate" command quite often to find files. I noticed today, however, that it is bringing up results from where the item has been in the past, not it's ...
user114256's user avatar
29 votes
8 answers
59k views

Faster alternatives to "find" and "locate"?

I will like to use "find" and locate" to search for source files in my project, but they take a long time to run. Are there faster alternatives to these programs I don't know about, or ways to speed ...
benhsu's user avatar
  • 631
28 votes
13 answers
67k views

Unix-type "locate" on Windows?

Using the Windows CLI (cmd), how does one locate a file that he knows part of the name of? For instance, every single Windows workstation installs javac in a different location, how would one find it ...
dotancohen's user avatar
  • 11.5k
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

What folders are indexed / covered by 'locate'

On OS X, I think the locate DB is populated by running: sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb But locate does not seem to find anything in or below ~/ Should locate.updatedb be indexing my home folder ...
user avatar
9 votes
4 answers
11k views

Cannot manually update database for locate?

I've been trying to update the databases used by locate on my Macbook (10.6.3 Snow Leopard) but even following the commands shown in this thread hasn't gotten me anywhere. I just get an error from it ...
memilanuk's user avatar
  • 410
288 votes
5 answers
142k views

What's the equivalent of Linux's updatedb command for the Mac?

If I want to use the locate command on a Linux machine, I usually run sudo updatedb first to update the database. I can run the locate command on OS X 10.5 but I can't find updatedb. What's the ...
Thierry Lam's user avatar
  • 4,307
15 votes
3 answers
9k views

How to use locate in cygwin?

I'm trying to use locate to find files, but I'm not getting anything back from the program. It can't even find files that are in the current directory. How do I make locate work?
Phenom's user avatar
  • 6,627
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

How can I make locate/updatedb ignore certain file extensions?

For instance, I don't want either program to find files that end in *.pyc. I'm sure I can do this somehow using regexes or globs, but is there a way to make locate just ignore the files altogether? ...
Jason Baker's user avatar
  • 8,602
1 vote
3 answers
560 views

locate/updatedb like tool (Linux CLI) for CDs/DVDs

I am looking for a Linux tool to search for files on offline media like CDs and DVDs. I know there are a lot of "cataloging" tools, but those are all graphical and I want a command line program. Ideal ...
yogan's user avatar
  • 11